Arrived at Puerto Montt in pouring rain ~8am. (weather prevented the ship to dock earlier.) We are not allowed to walk inside the port. So a bus is used to ferry passengers for ~50m. Since the luggage won't be available to pick up until 1.5 hours later (or carry them yourself), I decided to check out the market at Angelmo to the west (left) of the port. Red wooden 1-2 story structures: fist floor fish stalls, 2nd floor small eateries and toilet. Fishermen were carrying in mussels and fish. But otherwise not a lot of activities. The artisan market was still closed, which was just as well: their roofs could shelter us from the incessant rain.~10am located our bags and headed back into the rain. My travel spirit greatly dampened, all I wanted was getting to the dryer side of the mountain, i.e. Argentina. Taxied to the bus terminal1 a short distance to the east (right), bought tickets to Villarrica (every couple of hours C$8300) and onward journey to San Martin de Los Andes the next day. All tickets to Bariloche was sold out for the day. Being Friday, lots of people in the large terminal with ~a dozen bus companies and stalls selling everything. Every few meters an outlet to recharge your gadget. A bathroom downstairs behind a turnpike: yes, buy a token first.
A few tolls along the road and off ramps. Arrived at Villarrica ~8:30 pm. Found a random hotel after looking at 3. Ate dinner on the same street. Lots of people eating out or having a drink ~10pm. A small and very pleasant town.
2/18. Overcast.
Got up at 7:00 to check out the waterfront, which is ~10-15 minutes away. Too cloudy to see far. No sight of Volcano Villarrica. 9:00 bus to Argentina. My Kindle was stolen at the bus station while I was loading my backpack into the bus. First stop is Pucon, a much larger town. Seems nice. Lots of people getting on the bus. Stopped at a cafe in the area of Curarrehue, just short of the border Mamuil Malal. River Malleo rushing by the cafe and a picnic area. View of some pointing granite peaks. Very lush here, bamboo, trees covered with lichen and moss.
Lots of funny looking Araucaria near the border. It's actually in the National Park Lanin. Could see the volcano without its top: still cloudy. 
Reached San Martin de los Andes, again, in pouring rain. I headed out to search for hotel, while dad watching over the luggage. I asked 4 and found no room available. Eventually reached the main square and lined up in the tourism office. A girl there called two places for me, and the first one was available for 2 nights. Later in the day, I spent hours scouring for some rain ponchos.
2/19 Cloudy.
Hike to Mirador Bandurrias, starting at the north end of the lake front. ~4km enter the community of Maphuche,where you pay A$2 for the right of access. Most of their houses are at the north side of the ridge. Quite a nice view of the lake and surrounding mountains. All green. No snow. Can also go down to a beach called La Islita. For some reason, me and another 4 hikers missed the proper trail. Dad was too tired, and decided to head back. On the way back, saw a bunch of tourist coming back on, so I decided to try again. Yes, watch out for little blue diamonds pinned on tree trunks.
1:30pm, we board a local bus called Expreso de Los Andes. It's a slow community bus with stops to pick up passengers. A$3.5. Lago Lolog is 12Km away, and it took 40 minutes. Much prettier, however smaller beach. It was too windy to relax. Had to hide in the only cafe at the beach. No other customers. The return bus is at 7:10pm. Everyday, there're only 3 scheduled departures from San Martin (weekend: 8:30, 13:30, 18:30, weekday: 6:40, 11:40, 19:30). Another bar/cafe at the bus stop has maybe a couple more tourists. The servers were so bored that they played pingpong.
Carnival Parade. Didn't watch the whole thing. Were getting too hungry.2/20 Foggy with sunshine.
Hiked to Mirado Arrayan. About 4km along a road starting at the south end of the waterfront. Not a pleasant walk. Some bikers. View is over the city and the lake. Not bad, but it was too foggy this day. We tried to wait for the fog to burn out, but it was a bit chilly.
5:05pm bus Via Bariloche to Buenos Aires. Very dry and flat land. Sometimes a big river with green trees along it. Yellow grass. After my Kindle was stolen, I was somewhat paranoid. I slept with my laptop, and managed to crack its screen. The bus is very comfortable. I bought the 180° flat seats, but they aren't really flat. Only ~20 seats on the bus, plus 8 reclined seats. There was a snack served after Junin, and dinner was served with wine ~9pm. Champagne and whiksy was offered after dinner.
